New Corner Store Construction

Timeline

May 29, 2007 - Ground Breaking!

May 30, 2007 - The Big "little" Dig in Dixfield

May 31, 2007 - Visitors

I got up early today. No big ceremony planned--just wanted

to be there to see this all start. It's been six months of

meetings and architects and I'm really happy this is finally

going to start being real!

The crew at the hardware store got a call just as I came in at

7AM that "a truck" had rolled off the highway near Falmouth

and caller was trying to reach Mark. We later found out that

the excavator trailer had blown a tire and gone off the road.

Mark was already on his way back to an area where his cell

phone would work to get an update. Just my luck!! First day

and we already got delayed! Fortunately, nobody was hurt

and Mark (General Contractor) got another excavator from

Farmington back to Dixfield by 2PM. Impressive!

An entire day of hauling dirt out to prepare for the

foundation work. Seeing an excavator working in the

middle of Dixfield certainly created a great deal of

questions and commentary in both the hardware store and

c-store. Everyone seems very enthusiastic which has

added to a great atmosphere in both stores.

Representatives of Irving Corporation also stopped by late

this afternoon to remove their sign from the site. The sign

is Irving Property and I was worried about it getting

damaged during construction. As you can see from the

photos, it's a big building in a small area to construct it in!

During the design as I visited a lot of c-stores in Mass,

Vermont, and Maine I couldn't come up with a smaller

building without leaving out a distinct significant feature

that I wanted to include.

Not much to update on construction today but still a

busy day. Also, had some old friends from VT stop by

on their way to Moosehead Lake. Showed them the big

hole I was making in the middle of town. Good times!

June 1, 2007 - Bring in the concrete!

June 6, 2007 - need a foundation....

June 11, 2007 - a new week begins....

After some morning prep work laying forms the concrete

mixer and pump truck were brought in to pour footings

around the sides for the new building. It's a little harder to

see in this photo but the pump truck is behind the mixer. It

was impressive to watch because with the large boom on

the pump truck the crew was able to get to all the sides with

the trucks being stationary. It poured fast and the trucks

were gone in 2-3 hours.

After a few days of rain here the crew was finally able to

finish setting up the forms and pouring the foundation.

Same company came in with the mixer, pump and boom

and 4 mixing trucks to fill the forms with concrete. Yikes...I

wonder how many trucks the floor is going to be!

Really enjoyed seeing the SMC Class of '92 this weekend in

VT. Everyone seems to be doing really well and it was nice

to catch up with a lot people I hadn't seen in a long time.

Mark's crew worked most of Friday and Saturday breaking

down the forms and backfilling around the poured

foundation. Work should begin soon on services and

utilities, Verizon, Central Maine Power and Town Water

connections.

June 17, 2007 - New Technology Added!

Finally got my Toshiba 1K-WB15A Network Camera installed. The camera is mounted right outside my Dad's window off

of the hardware store. This should be a good view for a couple weeks but after the walls are up I may move it back up

by my apartment. The camera updates every 3 minutes and works amazingly well. I was surprised how little time it

took to get it going. Of course, being a former Director of Information Technology probably helps.

June 28, 2007 - Back to Work!

Very hot day here in Maine but there was a lot of activity outside! A lot of dirt being moved around! My general

contractor needed to finish some work at few locations which took longer than expected. Must be summer. A good

sign for the Maine economy though-- commercial construction is being done in Bethel and Oxford which is great for

everyone. From the updates, I got today from Mark I think we'll be full speed ahead here for a few days. More grating

work scheduled for Friday and plumbing and electrical work begins next week.

With the camera update running pretty well I'll post a few photos in this post of some of the work. From left to

right...the first photo is conduit placement for the two pump islands I will have after the existing store is torn down. I'm

standing in what will be roughly the manager’s office doorway. There will be a wall coming up behind the standing

conduits to mount to.

The middle photo is a shot from the hardware store. At one point, I counted at least 3 more trucks of gravel hauled in as

fill to level things up. The right photo you can see the completed planter foundation set on top of the footings back on

June 17.

On Friday footings were poured for the RT 2 walls which will

hold a narrow planter running the entire RT 2 side. I'm not

much of a gardener but the architect convinced me this would

help the appearance of the building not appear so "high" over

RT 2. A few years ago major repairs/construction of RT 2 by

the State of Maine lowered the road around this intersection

making the whole corner a little awkward to develop. This lot

specifically is lower than the fire station, hardware store and

corner store lots so this work is trying to compensate for that

for overall appearance and accessibility. I think the additional

wall on RT 2 will look nice. Gardening isn't really my specialty

so I will need to choose carefully what goes in there!

Conduits for Gas Pumps Rear View from Hardware Store Completed forms for planter

July 7, 2007 - Good week of hard work by all!

Even working around the July 4 holiday for everyone we made a lot of progress this week. Monday and Tuesday the

focus was on placing the plumbing, water and sewer systems in the building. Thursday was all electrical conduit. I've

been very impressed with the workmanship Mar Win Construction has done here. Mark has done a great job so far

keeping things moving. All the sub-contractors seem to have a good understanding of his expectations as well. Monday

will be final wrap up of remaining conduit issues and as long the weather cooperates we should be able to pour the floor

Tuesday.

July 14, 2007 - Rise Up

This week was full of activity with concrete trucks showing up first thing Monday AM. The same concrete company

Mark brought in for the form and footing work had a different pumping truck this time. This pumping truck had a even

larger boom on it which towered over the existing c-store. The truck certainly didn't have to move around at all this

time reaching all four corners easily with concrete. A larger crew was also here that day to spread to floor evenly. They

moved very quickly throughout the day.

Photo #1: Standing in the kitchen area looking out at conduits for sinks, drains, coolers, etc. Photo #2: Town Water

connection (copper pipe on right) next to the central distribution point for water. Photo #3: Conduits for the

bathrooms

Photo #4: Rear shot from Hardware Store

Photo #5: Route 2 view between c-store and fire station

Photo #6: Electrical Wall (back corner)

Photo #7: Placement of the walk-in freezer base

Later in the week framing began and it was great to finally see things like doors and window cutouts looking like the

drawings I had been looking at for many months. Footings and forms were also poured this week for the main entrance

and the two brick-faced columns.

The weather co-operated for the most part pouring the fiberglass concrete floor and entrance forms. During the week,

the freezer base (the box you see on the floor) was dug out and poured. Showers soon started right after he finished.

Not sure how that is going to get addressed yet. Water sat in the base overnight so the chance of the concrete not

being able to set and scaling is pretty high. I'll have to wait and see how Mark addresses that on Monday.

Photo #1: Pump Truck and Boom Photo #2: Pump Truck w/mixer Photo #3: Nice photo of pouring

and spreading concrete

Photo #4: Side view of pouring Photo #5: Rear short of pouring activity Photo #6: Footings of entrance and 2

columns

Photo #7: Front entrance framed in Photo #8: RT 2 view framed in Photo #09: Standing in back corner of

kitchen looking out over seating area

August 2, 2007 - Raise the Roof

After two weeks of getting trusses constructed and delivered on site they finally arrived July 24. The building

contractors worked fast sheathing the frame in about two days and we lost most of the parking lot that weekend with

piles of trusses all over the area. Monday 27th it was full speed ahead with a crane arriving promptly on site at 7AM.

Besides the fact that these are custom pre-built engineered trusses it's interesting to see them up close and the different

types that were spec'd for this building. On the side of roof facing the fire station there are three large "bays" cut in to

the roof for refrigeration and mechanical units. Watching the builders work it was clear there was "some assembly"

required as additional bracing and supports were added all around the 3 bays. The builders were able to get primary

trusses across the roof completed by Wednesday and they are focusing their efforts now on sheathing the bays for a

rubberized roof coating to protect these flats areas from Maine winters and other elements.

I'm really happy the architect was able to design the roof using these spaces for these large units we'll all see later.

Getting a lot of this equipment up and out of the way, as opposed to being on the ground, definitely protects the

equipment better and I think in some cases (refrigeration) the units are more efficient above the cooler space. Space is

really a premium on this corner!

Photo #1: Parking lot full of trusses Photo #2: Truss for one of the bays Photo #3: View from Fire station of

refrigeration bay

Photo #4: Crane extended over height of hardware store Photo #5: Adding additional bracing to a truss Photo #6:

Swinging truss up and over hardware store

September 1, 2007: Inside work begins

The past few days almost all of the work has been inside the building. A significant amount of the electrical work, HVAC,

a framing has been started. It's nice to see the inside of the building begin to look like a c-store. Tomorrow I think all

crews will be hitting the inside of the building pretty hard to make up some project time now that the roof work has

been completed.

Photo #7: Two of 3 bays w/sheathing Photo #8: Inside store view Photo #9: Looking up at two bays

with additional bracing

Photo #10: Seating area with sheathing and truss work completed Photo #11: Main Entrance w/sheathing

Photo #12: RT 2 view adjacent to existing c-store

Photo #1: Electrical Wall work in storage area Photo #2: Storage area entrance, standing in delivery entrance

Photo #3: My IT/data closet

September 17, 2007: Looking like a store inside now

Work has been progressing quickly inside with insulation and sheetrock quickly filling the walls and the store layout is

really taking shape. The biggest thing I've been waiting for is getting Central Maine Power to get the meter energized so

crews can get lighting installed. They have been running extension cords out the back of the existing store and it's

starting to get to the point where better lighting is going to be needed to keep things moving inside.

Now that it is mid-September I've been working with MarWin Construction to finalize a schedule for transition. I think

this is going to be the trickiest part of the whole project to keep the window of having both stores closed as small as

possible. The following dates are quickly coming up:

Photo #4: Cooler area (will hold 12 doors) Photo #5: Freezer area (will hold 3 doors) Photo #6: Counter area

Photo #7: Standing at Kitchen counter area looking back at cooler entrance Photo #8: Standing in Main Entrance

Photo #1: Refrigeration units being placed on to roof Photo #2: Front entrance masonry work well underway

Photo #3: Kitchen FRP walls being installed

October 2, 2007: Starting the finishing touches

Well the last few days illustrate what a difference a few days make when it comes to the inside work. Final coats of

paint look great and already brighten up the spaces inside even without the lighting installed. Lighting installation

begins later this week as well as installation for the cooler doors. The floor tile looks great and I think the colors have

been chosen correctly to last a long time. The general contractor and I have been finalizing paperwork for filing with the

State of Maine for all the gas dispenser and tank work starting on the week of the 15th and the remaining work schedule

still appears to be on track.

Photo #4: Insulation and sheetrock work almost complete Photo #5: View of Kitchen and seating area Photo #6:

Electrical panels continuing to grow

Photo#1: Cement board siding completed on hardware store side Photo #2: Cement board siding completed on

alley/back side of new store Photo #3: Cement board siding on gable section completed on RT 2 side

Photo #4: Good entrance view of completed masonry work Photo #5: Inside view w/final coat of paint and

flooring looking in to retail area Photo #6: Inside view w/final coat of paint and flooring looking at seating area

October 14, 2007 Demolition Completed

October 27, 2007 Almost ready to Open

It will be 22 days without a Corner Store in Dixfield on November 1st and that's about long enough for me! I am

disappointed that the entire lot won't be completed in time. I found out late last week that additional shoring needs to

be placed near the existing gas tank before adding the 2nd tank being installed. Apparently, there are a limited number

of companies able to perform this task. They will be here in the next two weeks and canopy, new pumps, and paving

should be completed very quickly once this task happens.

The building is looking great inside now with all the furnishings installed. Cleaning and small fixtures still need to be

installed which is what we'll be doing today. New inventory has already started coming in and being placed which is

exciting to see. Phone system and free wi-fi are also now working. I am confident we will be open November 1st. It

should be a pretty busy day. Many of our customers in the hardware store and around town are looking forward to

having the store open again.

Photo #1: Grease Trap Installation Photo #2: Coffee Island featuring Green Mountain Coffee Photo #3: Coffee

Island showing Iced Coffee and creamer

November 9, 2007 New Signs Arrive

It's great to finally be open. Everyone has been very supportive and patient with us as we continue to get processes and

procedures in place to deliver the quality services expected of us here on the corner. I am anxious to get gas pumps and

canopy installed

Photo #4: Point of Sale Counter Photo #5: Back wall of kitchen showing hood and heavy equipment

Photo #6: Looking out from the front line of the kitchen Photo #7: Customer counter at

January 6, 2008 - Project Completed